Patriot Act Violates Civil Liberties

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Since the terrorist suicide bombed the world trade center and a wing of the pentagon, there has been a change in the relationship between the United States government and the people. The executive branch has taken steps that undermine the principles in the United States constitution. In order to ensure a more democratic society, we have to tell the difference between effective governing and individual freedom. There is one main topic I'm going to talk about how the 1st amendment, 4th amendment, 5th amendment, and 6th amendment are being eroded by the USA PARTRIOT Act which introduced a overabundance of legislative changes which considerably increased the surveillance and investigative powers of law enforcement agencies in the United States. The First Amendment protects our rights of free speech and assembly, the independence of the press, and prohibits official establishment or unfair criticism of any particular religion. Free speech rights can be thought of as having two parts, the right to have free access to ideas, and the right to express ideas freely. The right to calm assembly goes with free speech given that demonstrations and other political activity are protected as expressive behavior. While government actions threaten all these rights stated by the First Amendment, it is our free speech and assembly rights which are most at risk. The USA PATRIOT Act contains provisions that will criminalize people's legitimate expressions of their political views. For example, the Act creates a new category of crime; domestic terrorism blurs the line between speech and criminal activity. Section 802 of the Act defines domestic terrorism as "acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of criminal laws" that "appear to be inten... ... middle of paper ... ...tee against arbitrary and malicious persecution of individuals by the state; by weakening those protections, the government has opened the doors to new encroachments on the liberties that all residents of the United States rightfully enjoy. References 1. http://action.aclu.org/reformthepatriotact/ 2. http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:1jKHd-GzeoMJ:www.aclu.org/Files/getFile.cfm%3Fid%3D10897+civil+liberties+after+9/11&hl=en 3. http://www.counterpunch.org/lazarus0925.html author EDWARD LAZARUS 4. http://www.counterpunch.org/cassel10182004.html author ELAINE CASSEL 5. http://www.aclunc.org/911/chronology.html 6. http://www.garynull.com/Documents/ACLU/911_report.htm 7. http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/usapatriot/ 8. http://www.slate.com/id/2087984/ 9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act 10. http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html

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